Programs Blog

Swimming in Tuvalu

October 22, 2024

22 October 2024

Location: 300 nautical miles south of Tuvalu

Weather: Overcast

We sighted the Tuvaluan capital of Funafuti midmorning on the 15th when it was just a long grey line on the horizon. It was our first glimpse of land since we left Fiji behind! As we got closer we could see the individual islands, palm trees, and little white birds fishing on the reef. We sailed through the reef and into the center lagoon by the early afternoon. A pod of dolphins greeted us on our arrival, showing off their best tricks. The water was a beautiful clear blue with no large waves like in the open ocean. Unlike our last stop in Fiji, Tuvalu is a calm and peaceful place. As a small and little visited country it has no tourist industry, so there were no shopping malls with trinkets or docks full of tour boats. We were one of the only boats anchored there, and we made quite an impression. The Seamans stands out compared to the other tugboats and motorboats that live by Funafuti.

We couldn’t go ashore our first day there since we still had to clear customs, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t do other things! Cap let us swim in the water next to the boat as a relief from the tropical sun. It was one of the best swimming experiences I’ve ever had. We were all allowed to jump off the rail (usually highly discouraged) into the warm, extremely salty water. The bow is a good 15 feet up, leaving lots of opportunity for creative poses. To celebrate our inaugural swim call we formed a synchronized swimming team, with our first show being the storied performance known as the Hokey Pokey. We’re trying to line up a gig at the Tuvaluan National Water Ballet. Unfortunately, swim call only lasted half an hour, but the after-effects of being cool, not sweaty, and not sticky lasted much longer. Swimming is great!

Sailing is fun, but there are also lots of fun things about being at rest. When we’re anchored watch is much easier. The first day C Watch was assigned to dawn watch from 0100 to 0700, but since it was our first anchor watch we did it in shifts to give us more time to sleep. Usually we must stand up doing lookout and steering and such, but at anchor all we have to do is supervise the boat and the anchor. It’s very relaxing, especially when the sun isn’t trying to burn you to a crisp. At anchor we’re also allowed on the housetops at night, since the waves won’t shake us down if we fall asleep. They’re unshaded and blistering during the day, but at night they’re one of my favorite places to be since the view is great and the sails are sort of comfy. Overall, it’s just nice to be stopped for a bit.